COO
ER GOSH. I was stunned, boggled and gobsmacked that
the New England SF Association gave me its
Skylark Award at this
year's Boskone. This is presented in memory of Doc Smith, so my sf must
contain more starkly inconceivable beams of coruscating, ravening
energies than I'd noticed. Thanks, NESFA! The stunnedness, bogglement
and gobsmackery were enhanced by official accepter Martin Hoare, whose
almost impromptu speech likened me to such past winners as No Award, and
who retains his ability to dial the Langford phone number at 3:15am
British time. Thanks (through gritted teeth), Martin....

Arthur
C. Clarke is reading classic sf: 'Just found this flawless gem
for Thog's Masterclass (which I always read with apprehension): "He
lit the dining room lamp, got out a cigar, and began pacing the room,
ejaculating..." You might try it sometime! The source: The
Invisible Man, Chapter 17 – I'm writing the intro for a new
edition, but don't think I'll quote this....' Told that Thog cited a
similar Wells usage in Ansible 134, ACC got excited: 'I think we
have the makings of a Ph.D thesis here.'

Henry
Gee of Nature reports uproar at the Institute for
Scientific Information, 'which produces the bibliometric statistics on
which the careers of many scientists hang. ISI was having problems
deciding which parts of our many-faceted magazine counted as original
reports of scientific research, and were therefore "citable",
unlike those parts which counted (in David Brin's words) as "entertainment
fluff".' Some of their 1999-2000 'Futures' sf vignettes were cited
as 'serious scientific information'.... 'I wonder which items ISI chose.
After Kim Stanley Robinson wrote a piece structured as a review of two
books published in the year 3000, we did get an inquiry from a librarian
asking for help, as they were unable to locate the books.'

Simon
R. Green probes the heart of the British TV
market with a well-sharpened stake: 'A TV writer I know
recently submitted a vampire series to Brit TV, and was
told, "We like the scripts, but do they have to be vampires?
Couldn't they be AIDS victims instead?"'

Stephen
Laws, UK horror author, is 'recovering after abdominal surgery
to correct a chronic case of the wibblies,' writes Steve Gallagher. 'The
keyhole surgery, which appears to have been successful and effective,
required no less than five entry points and, according to Laws, "I
now look like Warren Oates at the end of The Wild Bunch."'
[3 Mar]

Mike
Moorcock remains a radio addict: 'Did anyone else hear Ballard
on Radio 4? Very good, profound, original answers to people in the book
club asking about Empire of the Sun. I've never heard him more
relaxed or more eloquent. Great stuff. Cheered me up. Interesting to
hear people coming round to the mindset as they read.'

Alan
Moore failed to get a namecheck when the Spectator
film reviewer wrote that From Hell 'might be quite an
entertaining twist on the old Ripper tale, mainly because it was based
on a graphic novel by some hairy man who is widely thought of in graphic
novel circles, wherever they may be.' (Review summary: good twist, bad
everything else.)

William
F. Nolan was named as this year's International Horror Guild
'Living Legend', for his influence on horror/dark fantasy. [D]

Michael
Swanwick reminisces: 'Boskone was fun, as usual. Neil Gaiman
spent two hours signing autographs, despite the event being advertised
as only one hour, and only quit because he had to be on a panel then. He
came onto the panel with a plate of sushi which he gulped down, and then
signed a book which a dear friend had required I get his autograph on. I
was going to get him to sign a book for me, but after seeing how his
hands trembled, decided to wait a con or two.'

Andromeda
Bookshop.Rog Peyton writes: 'The creditors' meeting
was a non-event. The only creditors that turned up were one employee,
Laurence Miller, who came to support us, and the late Ray Gibberd's
sister, Gaia, who came because about £4500.00 is still owed on
Ray's credit card for Andromeda's purchases. No-one from the publishing
world showed up – but I'm reliably informed that this is the norm as
the relatively "small" amounts we owe publishers is too small
for them to bother with. [...] I can say that if anyone wants to be a
part of a "syndicate" to buy the assets of the company, I'm
looking for anyone who can afford to invest for one share = £5000.00,
in a new company. I've looked in at the Job Centre for anything under
the heading "Wanted – SF Expert" and found nothing (can't
imagine why) so I guess the only way I can go forward is to start
another company and do the only thing I'm any good at and that is to
sell GOOD books. Otherwise, I'm on the scrap heap and may as well give
up now (don't worry, Arline has already hidden my ties, belts and shoe
laces!!!). If any readers of Ansible are interested in a GOOD
investment, contact me quickly on 0121 643 1999 in the daytime, or 0121
477 6901 in the evenings.'

R.I.P.Virginia Hamilton (1936-2002), US author of children's fiction
– including fantasies and some notable sf – died from breast cancer on
19 February. At 65 she had won all the major awards in her field, and
was the only children's author so far to receive a MacArthur 'genius'
grant.  Chuck Jones (1912-2002), the legendary US cartoon
animator, director, author and artist who made over 300 animated films,
died of congestive heart failure on 22 February; he was 89. His
best-known creations were the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote. In a
60+-year career he received three Oscars as director and an honorary
Oscar for life achievement.  Spike Milligan (1918-2002),
last of the Goons, had been ill for some time and died at home on 27
February, aged 83. Besides the surreal fantasy of The Goon Show
itself, he featured in several science-fictional productions including
The Bed-Sitting Room (1969 film based on 1963 play co-written
with John Antrobus) and Monty Python's Life of Brian. 
Harry Nadler, UK fan since the 1960s, amateur genre film-maker,
and chief organizer of the Festival of Fantastic Films for the last 13
years, died from a heart attack on 1 March. Steve Gallagher fondly
recalls his infectious enthusiasm: 'Not many film fans mobilize friends
and family to buy, renovate and run their own cinema, as Harry did with
The Savoy in Sale, Cheshire.' Ron Bennett adds: 'Great enthusiast for
cinema and life. Great dry wit. Always an absolute joy to be with. Very
sad.'

Small
Press. Fictionwise.com's latest royalty statement comes with a
circular that discreetly mentions: 'As some of you know, we no longer
pay advances because of market conditions and other factors ...'

Random
Fandom.John Foyster had his final session of
radiotherapy for that brain tumour on 19 February, but Yvonne Rousseau
warns that 'it will be another three months before the effect of the
treatment can be assessed.'  Sierra Grace Joanna Tinúviel
Rose Glyer is the newly adopted daughter of Mike and Diana Glyer,
born on 5 February.  Peter Mabey spotted a fan in a
TV quiz: 'Ron Bennett was on 15 to 1 yesterday:
got into the last 3, but was eliminated first, guessing John Creasey as
author of the Guinness "toucan" rhyme rather than Dorothy
Sayers.' [8 Feb]  Peter McNamara, editor of the mid-1980s
Australian sf magazine Aphelion and later a publisher at his
small press Aphelion Publications, has been diagnosed with brain cancer;
despite surgery and coming radiotherapy, the best prognosis is 'maybe
more than 12 months.' Fingers crossed for better luck; all sympathy to
Peter and his wife Mariann in the tough times ahead.  Marcus
Rowland records the forensic physics of Channel 5's CSI: Crime
Scene Investigation: 'terminal velocity's 9.8 metres per second
squared. He would have hit the ground in under five seconds.' [16 Feb] A
fortnight later he added with relish, 'And tonight a suspected murder
victim was one Alison Scott....'

Outraged
Letters.Neal Asher, author of Gridlinked
(sp.), spotted the typo in the official BSFA Awards release: 'Aaargh!
Though I would appreciate the sales of Gridlinked to be confused
with Ben Elton's book, I'm a little pissed-off with the confusion of
titles! Steve Rawlings' artwork on Gridlinked is a contender for
the award, not sodding Gridlock or even Gridlocked! The
next person who calls it either of those will get a Gridlinked
suppository and should be aware I only have the large format version!' 
John Howard: 'So Sir Arthur's Thog submission [see A174]
has no attribution given. But the other great Said Avoidance Which We
Doubt Ever Could Be Said appears in Greg Egan's Schild's Ladder:
'"No!" she hissed.' Even allowing for the character being in
Eganian VR, cyberspace, novo-vacuum, or some other "nonreal"
state don't excuse this one!'  Mike Moorcock seizes yet
another commercial opportunity: 'I thought you'd like to know that in
order to exploit the current popularity of Lord of the Rings,
Hawkwind will now be known as Orcwind (as they are indeed known by many
already).'  Mike Resnick offers a little sage advice: 'By
the way, congrats on your short story Hugo. Next year write something
that'll beat the Female Person From Colorado and leave me alone. What
did I ever do to you?' I grovelled unconvincingly, but the great man was
not appeased: 'You invaded my turf; I'm invading yours. Wildside is
publishing a collection of 55 of my fannish articles this summer.'

The
False Goulart. Michael Swanwick reminisces about 'the CBW
conference where I met a man posing as a fictitious character. He said
he was a freelance writer and had been Ron Goulart's roommate in
college. They'd both hit NYC, hoping to make it as writers, at the same
time, he said, and Ron was so amused by his tales of difficulties
getting paid that he'd been inspired to write the Jose Silvera stories,
about a future two-fisted freelancer, capable of writing forty thousand
words of trash overnight and then having to rappel down buildings and
break into editors' offices with flash-grenades to get paid.  A
month later, almost inevitably, I ran into Goulart and told him I'd run
into his old college roommate. "I didn't have a college roommate,"
he told me.'

Fanfundery.Jean Weber & Eric Lindsay 'are pleased to announce that the
2001 GUFF Trip Report (Jean and Eric 'Avalook at the UK) has now
been published.' 5Mb PDF version available for a GUFF donation, from
their page at http://www.ericlindsay.com/guff/donate.htm
... The 54pp A4 printed report, with colour photo cover of British fan
mugshots, can be yours for a 'suitable donation' to GUFF at PO Box 640,
Airlie Beach, Qld 4802, Australia, or 60 Bournemouth Rd, Folkestone,
Kent, CT19 5AX. I suggest at least £5 or equivalent US/Oz dollars. 
No southbound GUFF race seems imminent, owing to a dearth of candidates.
 John & Eve Harvey found a pile of Pieces of Langford,
the fundraiser collection of my SFX columns which we thought was
out of print – still only £5 or $10 US from me, all profits to
GUFF.  DUFF nominations for the northbound trip from
Australasia to ConJosé (2002 Worldcon) are open to 2 Apr. Details
from NA administrators Naomi Fisher & Patrick Molloy, PO Box 9135,
Huntsville, AL 35812, USA.

As
Others See Us. The New York Times e-mail Books Update
notes that the blurb on Doris Lessing's latest novel features '...the
publisher's statement that this book marks Lessing's return to "realistic
fiction." Rockwell, the editor of The New York Times Arts &
Leisure section, says this blurb may reflect "the lingering
disappointment felt by some Lessing fans about her voyage into
imaginative storytelling and about her 'space fiction' in particular."'
[MA] Another poor stray welcomed back to the fold after years of
slumming around in imaginative storytelling.  Carl Djerassi
(whose play Oxygen was about to open in London) doesn't write
that nasty sf stuff: 'They are science-in-fiction plays, which he
distinguishes from conventional sci-fi because his plays are based on
real or plausible science. It's a way to "smuggle science into
theater," he told students Tuesday.' (San José Mercury
News, 20 Feb) [DB]

Don't
Tell Fred. 'There are a number of unsung heroes in the sf
world. One of them is the brother of someone extremely famous,' begins
the secret message from Maureen Kincaid Speller and Andy Sawyer. 'At the
"Celebration of British SF" in Liverpool last year one of the
things that struck some of the organisers was the number of people who
came up and said "I've just met Fred Clarke. Isn't he wonderful?"
 Well, isn't he? Fred Clarke is known to many of us as keeper of
the Clarkives. The Arthur C. Clarke Award owes a lot to his energy.
Those of us who have the good fortune to know Fred will be aware of how
hard he works behind the scenes to support the British sf scene. We can
point to his support of the SF Foundation and the Clarke Award over the
years, but more important are the small acts of kindness and
encouragement he has offered to so many individuals.' In short, there
are plans for a presentation to Fred Clarke at the Clarke Award ceremony
in May, and donations are solicited – sterling or US dollars to Maureen
Speller, 60 Bournemouth Road, Folkestone, Kent, CT19 5AZ, UK. This is a
'public secret', safe from Fred since he doesn't read websites or Ansible....

Numerology.
In the wake of Uri Geller's earth-shattering discovery that 11-letter
names and phrases are deeply fraught with meaning and significance,
sceptic Nick Pullar is carefully not filling the 3- and 6-letter blanks
in his test phrases 'XXX is insane' and 'YYYYYY is mad'.

Thirty
Years Ago. Malcolm Edwards, a mere fan, became editor of the
BSFA's Vector. Poul Anderson's Operation Chaos, John
Brunner's The Traveller in Black, and Robert Silverberg's The
World Inside were all ruled ineligible for the 1972 novel Hugo,
presumably for being collections or fixups rather than 'real' novels. (Checkpoint
15, March 1972)

Thog's
Masterclass.Dept of Temporal Science. 'The remains
gave off a strong earth smell. It suggested great age, century piled
upon century in which this jumble of now articulated bones had lain
forgotten in the volcanic silt of John Day Canyon. They had been ancient
already when Christ reportedly spun fishes and loaves from thin air.
Older still when Moses allegedly parted the Red Sea.' (Kirk Mitchell,
Ancient Ones, 2001) [NR]  Dept of Splendid Simile.
'He sounded like a dead child discovering that eternity is some buzzing,
languorous dream of Bath.' (M. John Harrison, 'Running Down', 1975) [BA]
 Dept of Strange Endowments. 'Her slender chest rose and
fell gently and slowly with her sleeping inhalations, her small breasts
and rather larger nipples outdenting the flimsy fabric of her ragged
tunic ...' (Fritz Leiber, The Knight and Knave of Swords, 1988)
[BA]

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Eastercon 2002 news: Helicon 2's programme will include
writers' workshops, to be run by Liz Holliday, who ran them for
Intuition. She can take up to 12 people only and a piece of writing is
required so, if you're interested, check details now on the Helicon
website: